It wasn’t raining!

We found 15 to 20 cm of new snow, that has accumulated over the past few days, which sits on top of firm older surfaces. It was raining below 1100 m. There is some wind effect in this new snow from continued southwest winds. We saw several small loose avalanches release on steep, rocky slopes today when the sun came out. Otherwise we didn’t see any new avalanches. In a snow profile at 1750 m on a northeast facing slope, we found a layer of weak, sugary crystals (facets) 55 cm deep that was reactive in snowpack tests. This layer may prolong the reactivity of wind slabs, making them human-triggerable for longer than usual. We avoided steep, wind loaded slopes and found some good sled turns despite the firm surface below the new snow.